Five members of a well-loved family were bludgeoned to death in an ''extraordinary'' and ''extremely violent'' targeted attack in suburban Sydney.
Tributes have poured in for the hard-working Lin family who ran the Epping Central Newsagency in Rawson Street, Epping, for more than six years after migrating from China.
A female family member found four of five of her relatives' bodies, including two children, upstairs in the family's secluded Boundary Road home in North Epping in Sydney's north-west on Saturday morning.
Police say the family members, reportedly Chinese-born Min Lin, 45, his wife Yun Li Lin, 43, two sons, Henry, 12, and Terry, 9, and another female relative, aged 39, were killed sometime between midnight and 9.50am on Saturday.
Detectives have not ruled out an extortion attempt as the motive for the apparently calculated killings, but NSW Homicide Commander Geoff Beresford said at this stage there was ''no suggestion of that''.
''It certainly appears that all the injuries were blunt force trauma to the upper bodies and to the heads of the victims,'' Commander Beresford said yesterday.
He described the murders as ''a terrible tragedy'' and added that police had not established any link between the murders and Mr Lin giving evidence of an armed robbery on a Chubb armoured van at the Epping Club opposite the newsagency, earlier this year.
''It is extraordinary, it's extremely violent and certainly unusual in my experience to have this many people murdered on one occasion,'' Commander Beresford said.
However, he sought to reassure frightened neighbours that robbery was unlikely to be the motive because nothing appeared to have been stolen during the attack.
''We're open-minded but we believe it was quite targeted and whilst I certainly understand the concern amongst the local community, I don't believe there's any reason for undue concern at this point in time.''
He said police had no persons of interest, but investigators were ''very open-minded of motive''.
Police were speaking to members of the Chinese community and relatives of the victims, including the parents' daughter who has returned to Sydney.
The slayings have shocked the tight-knit north-west Sydney community perched on the edge of Lane Cove National Park.
Former NSW Epping MP Andrew Tink, who had an account at the newsagency, described the Lins as a ''quiet, hard-working and self-sufficient'' Chinese migrant family.
Local residents and business people placed dozens of cards and bunches of flowers outside the newsagency at the weekend.
''Thank you for your good and generous help in our Epping community,'' one card read.
Another said, ''Your generosity will not be forgotten. Please know that you have touched many people's lives.''
Police sealed off parkland across the road from the family's house, scoured the ground and seized at least one vehicle for examination as forensic officers examined the crime scene yesterday.
NSW shadow attorney-general and Epping MP Greg Smith said he was very upset by the murders.
''He [Mr Lin] was a decent man,'' Mr Smith told the Seven Network.
The bodies were taken to Glebe morgue on Saturday night, where post-mortem examinations are expected to begin today to confirm their identities and the causes of death. AAP
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